sex

Online Sex Ed Course Decreases STI Risk in Teens

- Adam Clare

A lack of education around sex can lead to a lot of unwanted things like sexually transmitted infections and diseases to pregnancies. For many people sex is a taboo subject so delivering worthwhile information to teens can be difficult due to parent’s attitudes. One way to get directly to teens is through the internet and, unlike abstinence-only programs (which raise STIs and lower condom use), a new online course helps teens be safer when it comes to sex.

The results of the study showed a 10-per-cent increase in condom use among students who had taken the course and a reduction in self-reported infections for those students who were sexually active when the course started.

Gonzalez-Navarro said there was a significant, positive impact on sexual behaviour among friend groups who had taken the course.

“That was pretty encouraging,” he said. “You get much more effects if you have groups of kids knowing the same things.”

Read more at The Star.

Vancouver Reduces Sexual Assaults by 10% Using Male-Targeted Ads

- Adam Clare

It’s unfortunate that we still need ad campaigns to remind women to be safe from sexual assault, it’s even more unfortunate that we target these campaigns at women when men cause the vast majority of assaults.

In Vancouver they launched a campaign targeted at men called ‘Don’t Be That Guy’. After running the campaign, which told men not to take advantage of women, the sexual assault rate dropped 10%!

The poster is one of three that went up at bars and around the city last summer as part of a campaign to chip away at the increasing rate of sexual assaults in recent years in Vancouver.

Six months later, Deputy Chief Doug LePard says the Don’t Be That Guy campaign has contributed to a turnaround in statistics on sexual offences in Vancouver.

The rate dropped in 2011 by about 10 per cent, the first time in several years it had gone down.

Hopefully we’ll see more public safety campaigns targeted at people who commit the crimes rather than those that are victims.

Read more here.

Legalizing Prostitution Increases Health and Safety

- Adam Clare

Prostitution isn’t going away anytime soon (or ever) and as a result ought to ensure the safety of those involved in the field. In many places sex workers are abused and exploited and that’s not a good thing.

A new study from Australia found that no matter what the laws are around prostitution it will still occur; however, if it’s legalized than sex workers are healthier and safer!

Sex workers in Sydney, where adult prostitution is decriminalised and brothel locations are regulated through local planning laws, have access to the best-funded support program at $800,000 a year.

Sydney sex workers were also more likely to report regular contact with a health worker compared with those in other cities.

Sydney has about 200 brothels within 20 kilometres of the city centre, the research found, all operating legally – but many without planning permission.

Read the rest of the article.

Safe Sex is Good for the Planet

- Adam Clare 2 Comments

Researchers at the London School of Economics have released an argument that posits that family planning is one of the best things we can do to fight climate change.

Every £4 spent on family planning over the next four decades would reduce global CO2 emissions by more than a ton, whereas a minimum of £19 would have to be spent on low-carbon technologies to achieve the same result, the research says.
The report, Fewer Emitter, Lower Emissions, Less Cost, concludes that family planning should be seen as one of the primary methods of emissions reduction. The UN estimates that 40 per cent of all pregnancies worldwide are unintended.
If these basic family planning needs were met, 34 gigatons (billion tonnes) of CO2 would be saved – equivalent to nearly 6 times the annual emissions of the US and almost 60 times the UK’s annual total.

Condoms are Good?

- Adam Clare 5 Comments

This is some news that can be considered good or not-so-good depending on how you view the world. Having fewer children is the best thing we can do (or not do) for the environment.

Three decades ago, experts said that the ever-growing human population would lead to global disaster. Paul Erhlich’s best-selling work, The Population Bomb predicted disaster for humanity due to overpopulation and the “population explosion”.
Even though the world population increased to 6.7 billion in thirty years, advances in technology and agriculture, globalization and successful family planning has forestalled the detonation of this bomb.
With the recent rise in the cost of food and fuel, and our failure to control greenhouse gas emissions, along with predictions of a world population of 9 billion by 2040, it looks like we might run out of planet even with advances in technology.
One of the ways we can create a more sustainable planet is to limit our population. I’m not talking about state mandated controls but self-regulation. If a woman has control over the number and the spacing of her children, we are all better off.

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